BOLD STATEMENTS ON BEAUTY FROM 1959 WRITTEN BY GILLIAN COYLE


THE WASP WOMAN: ILLUSTRATION BY DARIA HLAZATOVA


When it comes to B-Movies of the 1950s, particularly those of Roger


Corman, cheap, lurid thrills is what most readily comes to mind. At a casual glance, The Wasp Woman (1959) falls neatly into the Science Gone Mad! B-Movie sub-genre. Its plot appears shallow, derogatory and distinctly pre-second wave feminism: the narrative revolves around a woman so obsessed with regaining her youth that she takes an experimental treatment which turns her into the titular monster.


New Empress


This film, however, is surprisingly thought-provoking. If The Wasp Woman is critical of anything, it is not women’s vanity, nor their fear of ageing, but the industry which exploits them.


“She’s built her entire life on youth and beauty.”


Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) is the head, and face, of Janice Starlin Enterprises, a successful beauty company. Over the last fiscal quarter, their sales have dropped dramatically,


and the board meets to discuss possible causes. Bill Lane reasons that their last advertising campaign is responsible. For the first time in sixteen years, a woman other than Janice appeared in their commercials. Starlin’s products are viewed as “minor miracles”. She is a symbol and without her face as proof of these miracles, people feel cheated.


Now aged forty, Janice retorts, “Even Janice Starlin can’t remain a glamour girl forever.” Later, when Zinthrop highlights her


not inconsiderable


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